Ordinary free standing paper bags have become very popular in all facets of day-to-day life. Some bags are often used in the retail and food industries for packing of items such as groceries and food items from restaurants and take-out services, as well in the household waste industry for disposal of leaves, grass clippings and other biodegradable items. These bags are very simple in design and therefore easy to manufacture in large quantities and in an economical manner.
Such paper bags are generally foldable into a relatively flat rectangular form that is compact in size, so that they can be transported and sold more conveniently. In particular, two opposing sides of the bag are typically folded inward, collapsing the cavity of the bag so the other two opposing sides are brought together and centered perpendicularly above the base of the bag. Once the two opposing sides are brought together, the base of the bag can then be pivoted around the sides so that it is substantially parallel with the sides, and together with the sides forms a substantially flat rectangular shape. Bags folded into such a flat shape are typically stacked and packaged so that they can be sold in quantity.
In order to use the bag for its intended purpose, the bag is generally unfolded to create a vertical standing bag with a rectangular cavity and a base as the support for the bag. The simple design provides sufficient rigidity to the bag, but also allows the bag to collapse easily due to the folds in the vertical sides of the bag. This design aspect may be particularly important in taller lawn and leaf bags. Other variants of this basic design also include handles for easy carrying of the bag containing its contents.
One issue with such bags, which may be particularly problematic in lawn bags, is tears in the top portion of the bag resulting from the act of loading the contents, particularly odd-shaped objects or slightly oversized items such as twigs or branches. Further, in the case of lawn bags, factors such as wind can make it difficult to load the bag when the sides of the bag collapse. The fixed opening dimension also makes it quite challenging to load items such as grass clippings and leaves. The bag can collapse upon itself resulting in partial or complete closure of the opening, which makes the act of loading the bag a frustrating experience. Furthermore, the act of transferring grass clippings into the paper bag directly using the receptacle unit that collects grass clippings generally attached behind a lawnmower can result in tears in the paper bag opening leading to spills and additional inconvenience and frustration.
None-the-less, this standard bag design has withstood the test of time without significant modifications to the opening dimensions and shape of the bag. One reason for this is the simple manufacturing process that easily enables production of large quantities of the existing design. A number of mechanisms and devices that can aid in filling of the paper lawn bags have been documented. Some of these are funnel-shaped devices that aid in loading the bag, (see e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,085,647 and 6,116,548), while others are rigid frames that are inserted into the bag (see e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,915,768) or around the mouth of the bag to keep the mouth open and prevent from collapsing (see e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 6,138,962). The variety of products that have been designed to address the explicit problem of the difficulty in loading the lawn bags is an indication of the importance of the problem and clear evidence of the need to alleviate this problem.
However, most of these devices or methods are items that have to be sourced separately and/or modified extensively for use with bags of other dimensions, and therefore necessitate additional expenditure of money and time. For instance, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,085,647 and 6,116,548 demonstrate the use of a hopper mounted on a stand that can be used to fill lawn bags placed below. It can be easily concluded that a bag of a different dimension or cross-section would necessitate a different hopper and stand design and dimensions. Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 5,915,768 demonstrates a method of creating a funnel made out of plastic material that can be used for packing yard waste into a bag. U.S. Pat. No. 6,138,962 demonstrates a method to use a frame to keep the mouth of the bag open during the act of loading.
Furthermore, most of these devices or methods do not have desirable characteristics for routine consumer use. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 7,736,057 B2 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,302,978 B1 demonstrate devices that are foldable in design, but are not exactly compact. In addition, their design also limits the amount of material that can be loaded into the bag due to a rigid bottom portion that extends all the way into the base of the bag. Moreover, the material used in the manufacture of these devices is corrugated paper that can easily get wet which would cause the device to lose its structural integrity and prevent reuse of the device. Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 5,271,589 demonstrates a method of creating a device made out of two interlocking pieces and is not compact either. This item also suffers from the same disadvantage of getting wet and is therefore designed as a disposable product. Finally, while this device can be used as an aid to fill lawn and leaf bags, it is designed for use with plastic refuse bags ideally. None of these existing solutions provide all the benefits that can be provided with a compact, light-weight, washable and reusable adapter as described in this invention.